Golden Windows
by Darkening Light 666
Summary: "The golden windows," the woman shrieked. "Beneath the crescent moon. Those golden windows are where you belong. Look for the golden windows!" The golden windows... I had long since given up on them. Maybe I was wrong to do so? Sesshomaru/OC
1. Prologue

**This is just a pilot chapter at the moment. I've been mulling over this idea for the last week or so and it hasn't left me alone. I've been non-stop writing for the past three days to get some of the ideas that are clawing away in my mind out onto paper.**

**If this gets some good feedback from people that seem interested in the idea, I'll start posting the actual chapters.**

**For now, though, enjoy the pilot chapter.**

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><p><strong>Golden Windows<br>**InuYasha

Sesshomaru / OC

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><p>Prologue<p>

An Oracle's Wise Words

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><p>Four teenage girls giggled and clung to each other, grinning as they walked through the festival street. Everything was so brightly decorated and lively. It was truly beautiful.<p>

"Hey, Mio," the tallest of the four girls called out, leaning over so she could get a glimpse of the shortest of the four of them; a girl with long wavy mid-brown hair and narrow grey eyes.

The shorter girl gave a low, husky hum in response, though she looked more interested in the stall she was ogling; a food vendor. Mio could definitely go for some taiyaki right now. She was craving something sweet to sink her teeth into. "Yeah?" She tore her gaze from the treat to meet the brown eyes of her friend.

"We all want to get our fortunes read. Do you want to come with us?"

Mio pursed her lips in thought. "Yeah," she replied in that same deep, husky voice. "I guess I will." The girl didn't hold much stock in the tellings of old women just looking to make some pocket lining. But, she'd go along for the fun of it. Who knows? Maybe she could be swayed. She might even get a really good fortune that would change her entire outlook on fortune tellers!

The girl snorted mentally. Not likely.

But, what was said was said and the four began their way through the busy street of Tokyo towards the tent their fortune teller had set up in the streets.

"You first, Mio. We booked four appointments. We totally knew you'd come," one of the girls said with a wide grin. She pushed Mio towards the tent, grinning widely. "Don't forget to tell us what you get! We want to know your fortune, too!"

The short girl stumbled, catching herself on the sturdy tent pole as she was half pushed through the flaps that made up the tent's doorway. She choked and coughed as she entered, sending a dirty look over her shoulder at her friends. The tent was thick with smoke from numerous incense burners dotted around the small area. The scent was almost overpowering.

"Sit, Mio."

Knelt on a mat in the centre of the tent, a woman gazed up at the coughing girl with unseeing white eyes.

_She's blind? _Mio thought as she gained her breath. Still her nose twitched as the incense smoke irritated it. "How do you know my name?" _The girls must have told her, _she dismissed as she moved to sit as she had been ordered to, though the unease stirring in her wasn't settled. The girl folded herself carefully onto the mat opposite the blind woman, arranging the sleeves of her furisode carefully in her lap.

"I know everything, dear," the woman cackled. Her eyes stared blankly at the girl, the opaque white never moving. "Oracles do."

Mio shuffled awkwardly, picking at a loose thread of her furisode as her eyes dropped to her knees. Those eyes... For a stare that couldn't see, the woman's gaze was intense. It felt like she was being picked apart and every part of her looked at.

"You're an old soul. This place wasn't meant for you. You don't belong."

"What?" Mio's brows drew together. Didn't belong? Of course she belonged. This was her home. The city she had lived in for almost all of her life.

"Ahh," the woman crooned, as if she'd seen something that connected everything together. "That's where you belong. You've got quite a future ahead of you, girl. An adventure. Many hardships. Love. It's real. Don't doubt, you silly girl. Never doubt love." The old woman cackled a fierce giggle. "Oh, what a husband! Yes, he'll do you well. A healing man! That daughter of yours. So beautiful. So sad."

Mio's lips pinched tighter and tighter in shrewd disbelief as she listened to the woman's babble.

"The sword. Tenseiga will cry for you." The woman's voice began to speed up, her babblings coming faster and faster. "Oh, you'll cry. Those tears. All your life you've lived for this. This one moment. It will mean everything. The poison. You wont breathe. You'll die. Death is a friend. Be not scared of it. Death! Oh how you'll cheat it. The human that refuses to die. That jewel. Lame, girl," she sang. "That will save you. Limp. Run. Fall. The _wolves_! He'll scream. He will hate you, Mio. The girl. Be with her. That girl is important. Run. Save the child. No." The Oracle's frazzled white hair whipped around her as she shook her head. "Death. So much death."

The girl shrunk back, pressing her hands to the ground to push herself to her feet. She'd never had a fortune like this. It unnerved her. Why so much talk about death?

The Oracle's hand shot out, grasping Mio's wrist with a burning palm. "The golden windows," the woman shrieked. Mio fought her, trying to pull away desperately. "Beneath the crescent moon. Those golden windows are where you belong. Look for the golden windows!"

Mio started to her feet, breaking the woman's burning grip and clutching her wrist to her chest. It burned. Her wrist burned.

Panicked now, the girl turned sharply on her heal to run from the tent.

"Goodbye, Mio," the old lady called out, her voice chipper and cheerful as if she was waving off a good friend.

"Mio?" the three waiting outside the tent called as Mio ran past them, still clutching her burning wrist.

She stumbled in her sandals, falling as her ankle twisted.

Whispers broke out, but no one moved to help her up. No one but a young girl. The girl tore her hand from her father's grasp and ran. Her little hands grasped the teen's arm. A warmth seeped into the teen from where the girl's hands touched her skin through the thin material of her kimono. A warmth she had never felt before. "Hey, miss?"

Mio's head lifted and she blinked, staring up into crystalline blue eye set in a rosy face of a young girl, no older than nine years old.

"I'm Kagome," the girl said, pulling at the teen's hand, helping her sit up. Mio, with the aid of the girl, sat herself up, legs curling underneath herself. "Don't be sad! Papa says that being sad isn't good and everyone should be happy!"

"Kagome," the girl's father scolded, resting his hand on her shoulder. "You shouldn't bother people."

The child pouted and gave a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I was helping her!"

Mio cracked a smile. "It's fine, really. She _was_ just helping me." She pushed herself to her feet and dusted off her furisode. Then she crouched before the girl and smiled brighter. "Thank you, Kagome. I'll be sure to be a lot more happy now." The ponytail a chunk of the girl's hair was in bobbed as the child gave a blindingly bright smile. "Thank you again, Kagome."

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><p><strong>And that's the pilot. I hope you guys enjoyed it.<strong>

**And yes, I know the Oracle's babbling made absolutely no sense. And a lot of it won't for a long, long time. But that's the point of the babbling old mad woman, isn't it? She's not supposed to make sense until the very last moment!**

**Please, tell me if you enjoyed chapter. I'd love people's feedback and constructive criticism.**

**If I get good feedback from this chapter, I'll definitely be posting the proper first chapter up ASAP.**


	2. Scroll One

**Thank you everyone that read the pilot chapter. I'm so glad you all enjoyed it!**

**I'd like to thank **EpicShadowNinja**. Within ten minutes of me posting the story, they had added it to their alerts and favourites. I'd also like to thank **Setsuna1986** for being the first to review. I'd like to thank **Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967**, **SongsofSiren** and **lostfeather1 **for adding this story to their alerts,**** too.**

**But I want to thank everyone that's taken the time to read the pilot chapter, even if you didn't review or add it to your favourites/alert list.**

**Also, I'd like to ask before I get much further in writing the story than I already have (four chapters so far, if anyone's curious), should I include the movie plot lines? I plan to add some of the filler episodes from the anime. I'd like to know if you guys think it would be a good idea to add in the movie plot lines, too. Drop your opinion in a review.**

**I'm giving you guys this chapter as an early Christmas present. From then on, I'll be posting bi-monthly at around half way through the month then in the last couple of days of the month. The next chapter will be coming half way through January.**

**Without any further adieu, the first chapter.**

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><p><strong>Golden Windows<br>**InuYasha

Sesshomaru / OC

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><p><strong>Scroll One<strong>

Warmth

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><p>"And it says that the jewel will grant you any wish, and then it disappears. But it doesn't just go away. It'll come back. Until someone makes the one real wish that'll make it go away forever." I listened to the teen tell her story with rapt curiosity as I strolled along behind her and her class mate.<p>

I was pleased that the students had taken my little suggestion to heart and done their homework on the shrine before we came here on our school trip. They'd thoroughly enjoyed looking up the myths and legends of the shrine and the surrounding area, which was a bonus. Listening to them whisper the stories to each other while they went around the shrine and point out features of the shrine that they recognised filled me with the pride only a teacher that saw their students showing a real passion for what they were doing would understand.

"Your students are well informed of the legends of this well, Miss Hayashi," a wizened old voice said from behind me.

"They are," I agreed with a bright smile. I bowed respectfully to the old shrine priest. My bags - a simple white leather handbag and a bulky first-aid kit that I had to carry around during a school trip anywhere - dangled from my arms as I bowed, brushing against the dirt ground that covered the entire shrine. "Thank you, Mr Higurashi, for allowing us to visit this shrine. I think all the students are really enjoying themselves."

The priest's lips turned up in a wrinkled smile. "I can see that, my dear. I'm almost out of a job with them knowing so many of the tales between them!" The two of us shared a laugh at that.

Maybe having them look up all the stories they could find wasn't the greatest idea. The shrine priest was just wandering around making sure the amassed teenagers didn't destroy the shrine instead of telling the stories that he must have usually told the visitors of the shrine.

"You can always tell your stories to me, Mr. Higurashi," I suggested as the two of us began strolling down the path towards the well-house. That seemed to be one of the more interesting places my students had chosen to visit in the shrine. That and the gift shop. I had seen a few of the kids showing off their replica Shikon jewel key rings to each other. I was considering getting a jewel for myself. The Shikon jewel myth was one that I had taken great interest in. Who wouldn't be interested in a jewel that could grant you any wish?

"Well, what would you like to know about the shrine?"

"Umm..." I tapped my chin gently in thought. "How about the story about the demon sealed to the sacred tree? I skimmed over the story when I was searching the myths of this place, but I didn't really look into it too deeply." Demonology was something I had always loved, though this time around in my myth-hunting, I just hadn't had the time to look into the demonology of the well. The idea of demons had interested me since I was a kid, visiting my first shrines with my family. I had been enraptured with the stories about demons I had been told and since then I had enjoyed all stories about demons. Each specific shrine had their own personal stories to share and I enjoyed listening to each one.

My friends had once said I was obsessed with demons.

I had turned around and said that if I ever met a real demon, I would marry them.

"Ah, now that's quite a tale. He wasn't a demon, but a half demon. A human parent and a demon parent. He was trapped to the tree over five hundred years ago." I listened in the same silent rapture I had shown when listening to my students tell their stories. His tale went on for longer than any story I had heard from my students, delving into the life of the priestess that cared for the Shikon jewel and how she saved it from the evil hands of a half demon by sealing him to the sacred tree before he could make his wish on the jewel.

By the time he had finished his tale, we had stopped in front of the well. "This is the well that the priestess used to dispose of the bones of the demons she would vanquish to protect the jewel. It's said that her remains were scattered within this well when she fell at the hands of the half demon she sealed."

"Wow." That was something I hadn't known. The priestess' remains were scattered here?

As I raised my arm to grasp the doorway of the wooden well-house, the priest gave a low grumble. "What a strange tattoo."

I dropped my hand immediately, my other hand moving to pull the sleeve of my cardigan down to cover said tattoo. "It's nothing interesting," I replied. "It covers a burn mark I got when I was nineteen."

I could still remember that day six years ago. The way I got the burn. I had a feeling that it would haunt me for a long time to come.

The woman was screaming at me, frantic as she grabbed my wrist. I could feel the skin burning, smell the singed flesh. The voice. Her words. _"The golden windows," _she had shrieked at me. _"Beneath the crescent moon. Those golden windows are where you belong. Look for the golden windows!"_

When I had broken free and calmed down from my panic, I had felt the pain of the burn that her grip had given me; a perfect raised crescent moon shaped burn, almost like a cattle brand. It was ugly. I had hated it for the memories it gave me of the night. It just reminded me of the terrifying fortune the oracle had screamed at me. So I got a tattoo over it. The same crescent moon. I don't know why I did it, logically it would just remind me of the oracle as much as the burn itself, but it felt right to get the moon tattooed right over the burn. Over the years the black ink the tattoo had been done in had faded to a grey-blue colour.

"How did you get the burn?"

"A freak accident," I muttered. A bad fortune wasn't a story that I wanted to tell right now.

"Miss Hayashi," a girl from the school called out from inside the well, saving me from the reminders of my past. She beckoned me with an excited wave of her hand. "Come look at this. There are bones in the well."

Smiling at the girl's excitement, and pleased with the excuse to get away from the conversation about my burn and tattoo, I uttered a soft goodbye to Mr. Higurashi and descended the few wooden stairs into the well-house. I came to stand besides the teen and leaned over to look inside the well, absent-mindedly touching my hand to the edge of the well.

The well did indeed have bones inside of it. Likely something Mr. Higurashi had gotten from a butcher to add to the authenticity of the well being named the 'Bone-Eaters Well.' But that didn't catch my attention nearly as much as the feeling that was coming from my hand. As soon as my fingers had touched the ancient wood, they had been warmed with a strange heat. "It's warm," I whispered, drawing my fingers from the well. A cold shiver shot down my spine like I had had a bucket of ice water dumped down my back.

I knew that warm feeling, though. I had felt it once before. Just once. On that same day six years ago. That heat that felt like a warm comforting embrace. Those big blue eyes staring at me as little hands gripped my arm.

"Miss Hayashi?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry, Yuri," I apologised to the girl. "I'm spacing out quite a bit today." The shrine was strange. It was giving me a weird feeling and I didn't know whether I liked that feeling or not.

"Are you feeling all right, Miss Hayashi?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little awestruck, I think. This place is beautiful, isn't it?" Almost contradictory to my words, I took a step back away from the well and wrung my hands together. That warm feeling I felt when I touched the well unsettled me. I'd only ever felt that warm and, I don't know how to describe it, content? happy? I don't know. But I didn't like the feeling much. I'd only felt it once before. It made me feel all wrong. It was nw and strange and not explainable. "I think I'm going to go out and get some fresh air."

My attempts at making a quick, clean getaway were thwarted when I put my foot down on something and felt a sharp, searing pain in the heel of my foot. I jerked my foot up with a pained hiss and half hopped to my other foot.

The hiss caught the attention of Yuri and she was immediately by my side with a worried crow of "Miss Hayashi!" She guided me to sit down on the bottom step inside the well-house even with my mild dismissal. It was my fault, wearing gladiator sandals. I'd probably just gotten a stone or a shard of glass in my shoe and stood on it.

I removed my sandal from my injured foot and shook out the sandal to make sure there weren't any stones or shards of glass in it. All clear. But while I was busied with the shoe, Yuri had gotten a look of my foot and she definitely didn't like what she saw. "Oh, Miss Hayashi, you're bleeding!"

The first aid kit was opened up and half unpacked not a moment later as I finally took a lot at my foot. I wasn't bleeding all that bad. Just a few drops of blood smeared over my skin. The red smears made it look worse than it was. After a moment with a gauze pressed against it, it had even stopped bleeding. I was absolutely fine. "Just a scratch," I assured the girl, putting a little plaster over the little wound for her state of mind more than my health. It was no worse than a paper cut. It might be a little sore for a while, but I doubt it would give me any jip after the surface wound had healed.

"Now," I said, after I had repacked the first aid kit, "I'm going for that air I wanted."

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><p>My foot, apparently, wasn't in as good condition as I thought it was. I had ended up limping out of the well-house. Every time I put pressure on my foot, it felt like I had something stabbing me. I hadn't seen one, but there must have been a stone or a shard of glass jammed in the minuscule wound that I hadn't seen.<p>

I'd have to have Saburo take a look at it when I got back to our house.

Right now, though, I was quite content to sit on the wooden bench underneath the sacred tree. It was so peaceful sat under this tree, looking up at the blue sky through the lush green branches.

I flexed my hands, eyes trailing down to look at them, resting in my lap. The well had been warm. Touching it had felt so right. I felt so content and happy while I had my hand on it. Like I belonged there. That unsettled me. It wasn't a feeling that I had much experience with; feeling content and happy like that. Just knowing that I felt it scared me a little. What was that feeling?

A sharp jolt in my foot caused me to wince and hiss in pain again.

A dry half smile kicked the corner of my lips upwards. Some always happened to me when I went out.

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><p>My fingers danced gently over the warm wood, barely brushing it before moving away from it. The cold feeling that chased down my spine to replace the warmth I'd felt just a moment before made he step back away from the well.<p>

"Miss Hayashi?"

As if pulled from a trance, I looked up at the voice. It was Mrs. Higurashi, the old shrine priest's daughter. She stood at the well-house's door, looking down at me with gentle eyes. "Miss Hayashi, this is the third time you've been back this week. You must feel quite a connection to the well."

Yes, I did. My connection with the well was obvious, no matter how unsettling it was to me. I just couldn't stay away. Since that school trip on Monday, I had been back every day after school to just sit by the well and touch it, just to feel that unsettling strange warm feeling from it.

I'd almost become obsessed with the well in the past few days.

"It's getting late," Mrs. Higurashi commented, looking over her shoulder at the setting sun. "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

"Oh, no, I couldn't trouble you. I have to get home to my boyfriend, anyway." I bowed to her in thanks. "Thank you for the offer, though." I had to get home to Saburo. He was starting to get annoyed with my repeated visits to the shrine. I didn't want to annoy him by standing him up for dinner. One thing we'd always done while we'd been dating was to have dinner with each other each night. I couldn't break from that little tradition.

"Maybe next time then?" the kindly woman asked as I limped towards her. My foot hadn't been right since the school trip. Once I had gotten back home, I had asked Saburo to get a look at it, knowing that if anyone could find something wrong, my young doctor boyfriend could. He had done so before I had even finished getting the question out. He hadn't seen anything, though. He'd assured me that there was no glass or debris in my foot. But every time I took a step, I felt the sharp pain of something stabbing at my foot like a sharp sliver of glass jabbing me. I'd been reduced to limping everywhere I went now.

"Yeah, maybe next time," I agreed. I did try not to let the dismissiveness enter my voice. I really did.

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><p>"Tch, look what you made me do, Mio. You should stop going to the well. It just makes me angry." The voice softened into a caring croon. "Come here, baby. Let me clean you up." A hand came into my blurry vision, obviously meant as a olive branch to help me up, but I flinched back, squeezing my eyes shut.<p>

"No, it's fine," I whispered in a cracked voice. "It was my fault. I'll clean up." I gripped my dress tightly, hoping that he would leave. I needed a moment to myself.

His fingers stroked through my short wavy hair in an affectionate gesture that served to do nothing more than make me feel ill. A cold feeling chased down my spine, worse than the icy chill I felt when I let go of the well. I didn't belong here.

"Okay baby. I'll go get dinner started while you clean up. How does tonkatsu sound?"

I tried hard not to let my voice crack. "Really good. Thank you, darling." I felt sick. I felt cold. I wanted that warm feeling. The warm embrace of the well. I wanted it so bad.

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><p>I couldn't fight it.<p>

After work, as I had been doing every night and would continue to do, despite Saburo's unhappiness with the idea, I made my way up the stairwell towards the shrine. My limp slowed me down more than usual today. With a twisted ankle on top of the stabbing pain I got with every step of my left foot, I wasn't moving any faster than a snails pace.

_The well was like a drug, _I mused, limping worse now I didnt have the stairwell to cling to. Making me feel strange every time I was near it, causing fights between me and my boyfriend.

No, it wasn't causing fights. It was just one excuse he had found for a fight.

I paused when I slid open the well-house's screen door. Sat on the bottom step was a lacquered box with a note resting on top of it. When I bent down to scoop the note up, I read my name written in one corner of the folded note in neat scrawl.

_Miss Hayashi_

_You come here every night but I haven't once seen you eat when you're here even though  
><em>_you stay all night. I thought you might like this._

_I hope you enjoy it._

_Mayuri Higurashi_

A little smile curled my lips as I folded the note up and slipped it into the pocket of my cardigan. I stroked the lacquered wood gently as I picked up the box I now knew was a bento box. That was sweet. I don't think anyone had been worried about my eating habit for a long while.

I sat with my back pressed against the well and smiled as the familiar warmth filled me. The warmth made the ache of my bruises and twisted ankle fade just slightly.

The box was crammed with delicious looking foods of all types, from egg rolls to katsu chicken. It all looked so delicious. It tasted just as delicious as it looked. I wolfed down everything in the box in record time, then just relaxed back against the well, enjoying the warmth. I was perfectly content then, full and not in so much pain. My fingers stroked against the old, worn wood of the well's rim. What was it about this well that made it feel so warm? What magic was it?

It was over an hour before I finally decided to move. "I should thank her for the bento." I helped myself to the feet, using the well as a crutch, then bent down to pick up the bento box.

When I straightened up, I gave a short shriek and stumbled half a step back. The cat that had caused my sudden start also stumbled in shock, falling backwards into the well. _At least cats always land on their feet_, I thought as I limped back towards the well.

I leant over the edge of the well to watch the cat trying to claw its way back up to the surface. It wasn't getting anywhere. I sigh escaped me. "I'm going to have to rescue you, aren't I?" I asked the struggling cat in a dull voice. With a little effort, I pulled myself to sit on the edge of the well and swung my legs over. I turned myself around and caught the rope ladder with my twisted foot. "Not winning any contests for grace," I grunted, hissing in pain as I began to climb down the well.

To distract myself from the pain in my ankle, I began to talk to the cat. "Maybe now you won't sneak up on people and scare them, huh?" My toes touched the dirt ground at the bottom of the well and I sighed in relief. My ankle was throbbing in pain now.

As I put more pressure on my foot, I lurched. Instead of touching the dirt, my foot felt like I was dipping it in warm water. Before I could even get out a surprised oath, my vision was swarmed with a blinding purple light.

When the light faded, I collapsed heavily on the ground, feeling sick to my stomach.

That sick feeling left me. At a price. My body lurched forwards and I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the dusty ground. It splattered noisily against the dirt in lurches as I heaved and gagged.

"Such a waste," I muttered softly wiping the drool and vomit from my chin as I stood up. "Good luck's wearing a little thin at the moment, huh, Mio? Now where's the cat?" I pushed myself to kneel up and looked around in the dark. All the light pollution that had allowed me to see seemed to have completely vanished. I blinked over and over, trying to adjust to the dark, but I just couldn't. I couldn't see the cat and, even when I began pawing around in the dark (I managed to put my hand and my knee in the sick puddle more than once during that little venture) I couldn't find the cat.

"Must have found a way to get out," I decided. _Now for me._

Once again I spent a few minutes shuffling around in the pitch black well, pawing at the walls much like the cat had, looking for the rope ladder that I had used to get down here in the first place. My search came up nil, no matter how many times I pawed at the well walls.

After a moment of despair, I resigned myself to scrambling out of the well with whatever foothold I could use. It was not a fun experience and my throbbing ankle just burned more when I finally slumped to the grassy knoll the well was sat on. Wait, grassy knoll? My fingers stroked through the grass. The ground inside the well-house was dirt. Where had this grass come from?

Not usually one to curse often, I allowed myself to make an exception for the current unexplainable situation. "Where the hell am I?"

If I was hoping for an answer, I was to be sorely disappointed. I was met with the unfamiliar silence of a peaceful forest. Not one car could be heard.

"What the fuck have I gotten into?"

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><p><strong>And so we have the first chapter.<strong>

**I hope you all enjoy it. No Sesshomaru yet. Not for a little while, actually. I'll see you guys with the next chapter half way through January.**

**Merry Christmas guys!**


	3. Scroll Two

**Chapter one went down beautifully. Thank you everyone that read and reviewed! I'm thankful to each and every one of you for taking the time to read it.**

**On with chapter two~**

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><p><strong>Golden Windows<strong>

**Scroll Two  
><strong>Again?

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><p>I didn't allow myself long to wonder what had happened to me. I needed to find someone; a person that knew what was going on preferably. If nothing else, at least a place that had a phone so I could contact someone I did know. I would go for either right now and be pleased with my lot.<p>

With the further agitation of my ankle with climbing in and clawing out of the well, my limping was entirely unbidden. I stumbled and fell more than a few times in my efforts to find civilisation. That only served to give me more cuts and bruises and a worse ankle to walk on.

My luck didn't get any better. Between the sharp pain with every step and the lack of food and hydration after throwing up, my mind was already beginning to blur after what had to have been less than an hour of walking through a thick forest. I hadn't even broken the trees when I collapsed to the ground, body giving out on me entirely. Holding myself up with weak, shaky arms, I looked down at the dark ground, fingers curling in the damp, fallen leaves.

I felt cold. Not just the cold chill of the air. I felt detached and empty. The warm feeling the well had given me while I was around it had faded and left a deep-rooted chill in my bones.

My tense face relaxed into what I believed was a peaceful expression as the ground raced up to meet me. Everything went black around me before I could even feel the firm presence of the dirt beneath my cheek.

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><p>I came to after a harsh jolt of my body that sent waves of pain crashing through all the pulled muscles and painfully pulsing bruises. It took a bleary moment to get my bearings.<p>

I was moving. Not walking. Sleep walking was something that I hadn't done since I was a little child. No, I was just...moving. I could feel the light breeze playing through my wavy hair, which, after all this excitement, I'm sure was knotted in a poor parody of a birds nest.

A cart, I realised after my body jolted again, and with it came the wooden sound of the wheel rattling on it axel. I was on a cart. I began to feel the dry, scratchy straw scraping at my legs and neck as my mind began to focus. I was lying on a pile of straw. With a little more effort to try and shift the strange light feeling in my head, I could hear voices. From the men riding upfront in the cart, I assumed. My saviours.

"-nge clothing, but she's a pretty girl underneath those bruises. We'll be able to get a good price for her, I think." That rung a warning bell in my head. Were they talking about me? Better yet, it sounded like they were talking about _selling_ me. Maybe not saviours, then. I would have been 'saved' by someone that wanted to do further damage, wouldn't I? My luck was ringing just as well as it always did.

"We could always have a little test of her first," a second voice jeered in a way that made my already crawling skin prickle with disgust. "Gotta make sure she's fit for servicing, right?"

I cringed. Fit for servicing? Not likely. He was not going to find out whether I was _fit for servicing _or not. Him or his friend.

It took a great effort to crawl towards the open back of the cart as slowly and quietly as I could so I didn't gain their attention. By some miracle, I managed it and, with not enough time to give myself to actually think of a clever plan and a very pained grunt, I flung myself off the back of the cart.

Miracles seemed to be coming by the boatload today, because the two cart drivers didn't notice my well thought out escape and carried on their jolly way without their kidnapped woman fit for servicing.

Now what?

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><p>I had ended up crawling into a bush at the roadside and laying there among the leaves and berries for a while until I felt up to actually walking. It was a while before that happened, I assure you. I needed something to eat and a proper sleep and good medical attention. None of which were coming to me just laying here in the bush.<p>

"Come on," I muttered encouragingly to myself as I dragged myself to my unsteady feet. I desperately needed to find some running water and, hopefully, some food that I definitely knew was edible. As good as the berries looked, sitting there so temptingly on the bush, I didn't know what they were. I didn't want to risk them.

"That's it. One foot in front of the other." One. Two. One. Two. One. Two. My progress was slow and painful, but I continued on. I had to find somewhere. Some place with people around. Some place with food and a hospital.

I walked through the day; managing it only through willpower, I think. Because by the time I got through the next forest I came to and finally broke through the trees, I was just about ready to collapse. And when my eyes settled on a traditional style hut, I did just that, falling to the ground once again as I blacked out.

I awoke again to the sight of big brown eyes and a breath-taking sense of deja-vu. Those eyes looked so familiar. No, no they were the wrong colour. The eyes I remember were blue. A sparkling crystalline blue. These were the warm brown of melted chocolate.

"H-hey there," I croaked painfully, pushing my hands underneath my body to push myself to sit up. The girl scuttled back, her eyes widened like a deer caught in the headlights. "Oh, hey, no no no. You don't need to be scared," I assured her. "I'm not going to hurt you." She looked like she was backing away from someone getting ready to attack her. I felt hurt that she backed away from _me _like I was going to hit her.

At a mere five foot one, I wasn't really a threat to anyone. And as an assistant teacher, the idea of ever hurting a child was affronting and upsetting.

I pushed myself to my feet, hissing as bruises I didn't even know I had pulsed in pain. Every time I tried to stand up now, the pain was worse than the last time. Maybe it was best to quit while I was ahead and not move again until my bruises had at least calmed down enough not to scream with every movement. Maybe even until my ankle stopped throbbing.

The girl tipped her weight from one foot to the other over and over in a motion that I associated with preparing to bolt at a moment's notice.

I didn't move as she continued her nervous shuffling, scared she really would bolt if I even breathed too aggressively. I knew that deer caught in the headlight look better than a lot of people and I didn't want to be the cause of it. Especially not in a girl so young.

To occupy myself as she decided whether she was going to run or stay, I took a good look at her. Like the girl from my memories, she was no older than about eight. Her hair was in the same style I remembered from the girl, a chunk of the messy black locks held in a ponytail at the side of her head. She even wore a similar pink kimono than the girl from my memories; though this girl's was clearly a kimono made to last through the roughness of daily life. It was as pretty as the festival girl's anyhow.

If the girl turned around and told me her name was Kagome, I think I would freak out.

Thankfully for my mental help, she didn't say that. She didn't anything at all. She did, however, come to a decision in her fight or flight problem. She stopped shifting and clasped her hands behind her back.

She gave a gap-toothed grin that melted my heart just a little then reached for my hand. I let her take it and gave a little smile as she tugged it, pulling me towards the huts I had seen before I passed out. So I had passed out and no one had come to help me. I'd just been left in the same place. I felt a little bitter about that.

The place looked like a feudal village. Had I stumbled upon a reenactment village or something? I probably wouldn't find a phone here if that was the case. Damn. Maybe there was a doctor or something. It'd be just as good for now. My whole body was aching.

"I'm Mio," I muttered to the young girl.

Her eyes flickered back to me and she gave me that gap-toothed smile again, but said nothing.

Odd.

I tried to prompt her to speak; asking her for her name and where about we were, but she didn't speak a word. She just gave me that same smile as she led me through the village. People stared at the two of us as we walked through the dirt street. Well, the girl walked. I limped quite obviously. They whispered and I couldn't help but feel self-conscious.

I'm sure I looked a mess; with my hair in a disaray, my skin battered and bruised, my clothes stained with dirt and vomit. I could understand why they were staring like they were. I bet if someone walked up to me looking like I did, I would give them the same look.

No matter how much I understood the looks and whispers, it still hurt a little to be on the receiving end of them. Under the weight of the heavy stares, I just wanted crawl into the closest bath and soak there for a week to get rid of the mass amounts of dirt that was clinging to my skin. I didn't want to curl into a ball and hide from the word, though. These stares were different than the ones I usually got from people. They didn't give me that cold chill I was used to. The one that made me cringe into myself and made hot bile crawl up my throat. I just felt...insecure. It was a big difference.

"Rin," a middle-aged woman called out, half-stepping behind the protection of who I assumed was her boyfriend. "Where did you find such a strange woman?"

Rin? "Is that your name? Rin?" I asked the girl, ignoring the woman's call. The girl turned a bright smile over her shoulder and nodded enthusiastically. Rin. What a cute name.

I was led into a tiny, dirty shack of a hut and coaxed to sit down by the girl. I did so carefully, looking around the hut. It was almost empty, with nothing more than a water container and a dingy little blanket. Rin dragged the water barrel towards me and spooned some water into the ladle that was sat in it. I wanted to say no. Who knows how long the water had been sat there? It didn't look clean. I didn't really want to drink stagnant, dirty water from a barrel that looked a little too dirty to be healthy. But the scratchy feeling in the back of my throat reminded me that it had been well over a day since I had last had anything to drink.

Going against common sense, I took the ladle from her and sipped at the water. It even tasted dirty.

Rin, pleased to know I had drunk something, hopped up and held her hands out to silently tell me to stay put before darting out of the hut. I watched her leave silently, sipping cautiously at the water.

She returned over an hour later and I started awake, blinking the sleep from my eyes. I'd been dozing and was threatening to fall asleep for the past few minutes. The girl's presence roused me from my sleep, though. And as she thrust a cooked fish skewered on a debarked twig in my face, I smiled. "Thank you." I devoured the fish like a ravenous beast. It had been a long time since I had eaten anything and my body was demanding sustenance. Sustenance that I was quite happy to give it.

* * *

><p>The next couple of days passed in a similar manner. I stayed in pretty much the same spot when I didnt need to get up to relieve myself. After my first bathroom break, behind a tree not too far away as seemingly there wasn't a bathroom in the girls hut, I had decided to do something about my ankle and ended up tearing strips from the skirt of my dress to use as a bandage. My dress was beyond saving now and I couldn't care less about tearing it up.<p>

I wrapped my ankle tightly and that helped a little. It did, however, leave me with a skirt much shorter than I would like. I wasn't a teenage girl any more. The idea of wearing a skirt so sort I could flash anyone with a shift of my hips made my cheeks flush. But I didn't have much of a choice. My ankle needed some tending to, but I didn't have the luxury of bandages.

Rin would disappear periodically to get food for the two of us and we'd sit together in silence as we nibbled on whatever the girl bought at that point in time.

It was during one of these such quiet meal times that I asked: "Hey Rin, where are your parents?" Over the past two days, I hadn't seen any adult come to the girl. She had been caring for me alone. The question had been gnawing at me since I had first been bought to the hut.

The girl paused in chewing the mushroom that she'd been nibbling on and gave me a heart-wrenching look that I understood immediately.

"Oh, Rin..." Abandoning my own meal, I crawled over to her and pulled her into my arms. She curled against me and I felt a familiar warmth stir up inside me. _Like the well_, I mused, holding her tight as her hands curled in the thin material of my dress. In the past week, I had felt this warm sensation more than I ever had before it. Just once before this week. And now I was feeling it so often. Why?

* * *

><p>On the fourth day in this reenactment village, I emerged from Rin's hut, limping less and feeling better than I had in the past week. I wasn't dehydrated (or sick from drinking the stagnant water, which was a bonus) and I had been fed well over the past four days stuck in Rin's hut. Now I wanted to be able to clean up, don new clothing and feel a little more human. I felt more mud monster than human right now.<p>

Whispers started up as soon as I emerged. I wasn't hurt this time around. Even I could join in and whisper crude insults about me right now. I was dirty as sin and probably not good company to anyone. It was a wonder Rin had kept me around so long.

"Hey," I called out, approaching a group of women. "Excuse me, could you..."

I didn't even finish what I was about to ask. There was no point. As soon as I had spoken, they had huddled together with their backs to me and carried on whispering like I wasn't there.

That pulled me short and I just stood and stared at the backs of their modestly designed kosode's with hurt in my eyes. That was rude. I wasn't so bad that they would basically exile me, was I? I definitely didn't think so. A torn dress and a few dirt stains were _not _enough to cause this type of unfair treatment. A few whispers, yes; completely ignoring me, no.

"You'll be getting no aid from them, girl," an old woman said quietly as she approached me with a hobble in her step. She was a thin woman, her face wrinkled with age and her hair a thick white, pulled into a tight bun with a simple hairpin. "They don't trust what they find strange and you are very strange."

"Yeah, I suppose so." I'd gathered quite quickly that I was the strange one in this little village. Everyone lived like this was truly the feudal era. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I, in my light summer dress, wasn't going to fit in easily. It still wasn't nice to be treated so badly because of that. People weren't nice, though. That I had good experience with. But this woman approached me when everyone else ignored me or whispered about me. Maybe she could help? "Do you know where I could get some clothes?"

She appraised me with her black eyes for a long moment as if judging whether or not she should put forwards the effort to actually help me before she turned on her heel. I sighed softly, shoulders slumping with defeat, before she turned her sharp gaze on me. "Well? Follow me. Quickly now."

I did so immediately. As we walked, we traded names. Hers was Chinatsu.

She gave me everything I needed and for that I would be forever grateful. A hadajuban and a beautifully decorated yellow hemp kosode with pink and green butterflies printed upon it. I admired it for a long moment before thanking the woman for her kindness and leaving her hut. Now I had clean clothes, I needed to clean my body. I wouldn't don clean clothes with a body caked in vomit and dirt.

* * *

><p>Life went on and before I knew it I had spent a fortnight in the village looking after the silent Rin. After many hours thought on the subject, I'd come to the decision that she was silent because of the trauma of her family dying. I didn't speak this theory, of course. I wasn't so callous to throw a suggestion like that out at her. It didn't make any difference, anyhow. The girl was still the same surprisingly cheerful girl, whether she was mute because of trauma or not.<p>

I was quite happy looking after her, even if I did catch myself asking questions that would need a verbal response every now and again. Living with a person that didn't talk wasn't easy. It would take a while to get used to the idea of not asking open questions.

Rin, with no care for my slips with open questions, was as bright and cheerful as ever.

Another thing I was struggling with here was the lack of luxuries I was used to. Bathing in the little reserve just outside the village wasn't ideal. I missed showers. I missed hot water in general. There were a lot of things I missed about my home and if listed them all here, I could go on for eons. The more I thought about what I had left behind, the more upset I became. So, as a form of self-preservation, I decided that I didn't need to think about what I didn't have any more. Right now I had taken on the role of guardian for Rin. If I were to leave, it would mean leaving the girl behind and in the past few weeks, I had grown so close to the girl that I didn't think I could leave her behind if I tried.

"Rin, I'm going for a bath," I called out to the girl as I exited our hut. In my arms I had the remnants of my dress that I had been using as a towel since I had gotten some new clothes. "Don't wait up for me. I'm going to stay out there and soak for a while."

I got a wordless grunt from the girl that signaled that she'd be fine with me gone for a couple hours and I could be on my way without worrying about her. I smiled softly and patted the old hut's doorway before heading out.

I went right past the reserve that I usually used to bathe in as, for the first time since I had been here, there were a few people hanging around the reserve, muttering between themselves about fish being stolen.

It didn't matter too much to me that there were people around. It just gave me an excuse to explore the area and look for somewhere else to bathe. I was always loathe to use the reserve anyway. It wasn't closed off enough for me. Anyone could peep in at any time and I didn't really fancy giving anyone a free show.

So I took my search into the forest and further, towards the mountainous areas that overlooked the village. Idly I wondered which mountains these were. If I knew which mountains they were, I would be able to hazard a guess on where about in Japan I was. That'd help me get home eventually, I hoped.

It was easily an hour before I found what I wanted, a little into the mountainous terrain. There was a nice pool that would do perfect for soaking for a while; with a ledge perfect for sitting on and enough rocky space for me to be able to lay out my hadajuban to dry once I had scrubbed it clean.

Dipping my toe in the water told me that it was cold. Not ideal for a bath, but it was going to be the best I'd get considering I couldn't find any hot water on demand. What I wouldn't give to stumble on a shower somewhere. Or at the very least a nice hot spring. That would be heaven.

After stripping and scrubbing my hadajuban as clean as I could get it, I slapped it on the rocks and slid into the pool myself. My mouth formed a wordless cry at the sudden shock of cold water, but I stayed firm, trying to get used to the sudden cold. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the water didn't feel quite so sharp. I could lay in it without feeling like I was going to freeze. "I'd kill for a hot shower," I mumbled to myself, beginning to scrub myself of the day's buildup of dirt and grime on my skin.

I dipped under the water to scrub and comb my hair with my fingers.

When I broke the surface, I slicked my short hair back and settled to lie in the pool for a while.

It was nice being able to lie around and relax as I bathed. I hadn't been doing much relaxing and lying around recently. Being here, where I had to do just about everything myself, from cleaning the hut to making the food that Rin bought back edible, was such a huge difference to what I was used to back home, with convenience stores around every corner and a boyfriend to help me out when I didn't want to do all the work myself.

A boyfriend...

I hadn't given Saburo much thought over the past few weeks. My body sunk in the pool a little as I stared ahead of myself blankly. Did I miss Saburo? No doubt I missed the company of another adult to speak to. Rin wasn't much company in the way of conversation and I wasn't exactly accepted by the villagers, so I rarely got to have a proper conversation with anyone like I used to with Saburo. I missed having help with all the chores. I even missed having his body pressed against me at night. I was a little lonely without Saburo around.

But Saburo was... I clutched at my bare arms and sighed. Was it Saburo I missed, or having company?

The latter, I decided after a long minute's though. I didn't really miss Sab-

I tensed as a shiver ran down my spine, cutting off my thoughts immediately as I felt a swell of nausea run through me. The short hairs on my arms prickled, rising in sudden alarm as a loud screech of a bird sounded above me. It couldn't be a bird, though. The sound was deafening; louder than any bird cry I had ever heard before.

I was right. What I saw when I looked up was no bird. I couldn't tell you what it was for certain. It was huge, with a round body and wings that went on for miles (well, perhaps a good ten or fifteen feet). Its face didn't look like any bird I had ever seen before. It looked almost demonic with its wide mouth lined in sharp teeth. I had to slap a hand over my mouth and bite into my fleshy palm to stop myself from screaming out at its terrifying appearance.

And it was making a nose dive right towards me as if it was going to pluck me right out of the pool. I was frozen in fear.

I don't know whether I was lucky or not when I heard the slap of flesh against stone. As if everything was playing in slow motion, I turned my gaze to the side to see a man crouching just besides my head, looking as if he was about to jump over my head at the thing that was diving towards me.

This man wore some of the strangest clothing I had seen to date. His chest was covered with a metal chest plate and the rest of his form decked out in some type of brown fur.

Shocking blue eyes rolled down to meet my own slate grey and a smirk curled the man's lips. No, he wasn't a man. He barely looked seventeen. Just a boy. He spoke in a husky, slightly amused tone before bracing against the ground and jumping up over my head. That move gave me a good luck at the fundoshi he wore underneath the fur.

His words processed just as I heard a pained screech from above me.

"I'll be back for you. You'll make a tasty meal."

That little sweetheart of parting words was enough to get me moving. Forget the demon bird. I wasn't going to let some teenage wild-child at my body. With the threat of becoming a 'tasty meal' to some delinquent on my head, I was out of the pool and grabbing my clothes in record time.

I didn't look back, even as shrieks of pain and anger rang out loudly behind me.

* * *

><p><strong>I know what you're thinking. How did she miss Kaede's village? Well, it was pitch black with no light pollution from the light-trap that is Tokyo. And Kaede's village is beyond the sacred tree. Mio went in the opposite direction because she didn't have the luxury of light to be able to see the sacred tree like Kagome did when she fell down the well.<strong>

**And still no Sesshomaru yet. I promise he'll arrive soon, though. Just hang in there.**

**So far my poll on the subject of including the movies and filler episodes of the anime are:  
><strong>**Yes: 1 No:0  
><strong>**If you have the time to drop your thoughts on me adding the movie plots and the filler episode plots into the fic, please tell me what you think!**

**From now on I'm going to answer reviews and waffle on down here at the bottom.**

Setsuna1986**: All will be revealed in time. Both are very important to the plot of the fic. I can't give away too much about the burn mark yet, though I can say that it isn't a mate marking.**

Guest: **Is five hours soon enough? My updating schedule is the first of the month and the fifteenth of the month. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Thanks all for reading the fic! See you next month!**


	4. Scroll Three

**And we have yet another chapter uploaded at a decent time. I'm doing well with this post chapters in a decent timeframe thing this time around, aren't I? Let's hope I can keep it up, eh?**

**I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter. Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed the last chapter!**

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><p><strong>Golden Windows<strong>

Scroll Three  
>Failed Escape<p>

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><p>Even lame, I ran fast through the mountain pass I had used to get to the pool and back through the forest towards the village. I was panting heavily when I finally got to the fringes of the forest, clutching my still-dripping clothes to my chest and limping painfully.<p>

My body collapsed against a tree, shoulders heaving as I tried to regain my lost breath. So much for a nice, relaxing bath. I wasn't ever going back to the mountains again. I'd make do with the reserve for bathing from now on, no matter how little privacy I got from it. I'd rather give an accidental peep show to someone from the village than get attacked by demon birds and delinquent wild children.

"Mio?" Stood on the path from the forest to the village, with a woven basket in the crook of her arm, was Chinatsu, glaring at me in a mixture of confusion and mild disgust. "What are you doing out here in such a state of undress, girl?"

I continued to pant for a moment, before finally finding enough air to be able to speak. "I was at the base of the mountains an-"

That seemed to be enough for her, as she cut me off with a slow shake of her head and grave words. "The mountains are filled with demons, girl. A dangerous sort. Wolves and Birds alike. I am surprised you returned alive after meeting such demons."

Demons? So that thing... it was a demon?

"But there was a boy there. A human boy."

Once again Chinatsu shook her head. "Don't be stupid, girl. No human is stupid enough to brave those mountains." She took a pause here and looked me over slowly with a cold glare. "Besides yourself, of course. What you saw was a demon. The worst kind of all; a demon with the face of a human."

A demon...with a human's face? A demon that looked like a human? Could demons do that?

I couldn't believe I was even contemplating the existence of demons at the moment, let alone demons that looked perfectly like humans.

But...everything was different here. So impossibly different from the place that I had lived in just a few weeks ago. Would it be so strange for demons to exist in this impossible world? No... No, I guess it wouldn't.

"I'm- I need to go get dressed," I muttered quickly and quietly, clutching tightly to my damp clothing. I gave the woman a shaky bow, never one to be rude, then turned tail and darted back into the woods for a little bit of privacy. I needed to be alone to sift through my thoughts.

I donned my damp hadajuban in a mechanical daze as thoughts beat at my mind. Demons. Real demons. What were they like here? Were they as terrifying as the legends from where I was from? Or were they of a completely different ilk? Did they kill or care?

From Chinatu's reaction, I could safely assume that they weren't good. That was good enough for me. I didn't think I was brave enough to go out of my way to find out the answer myself.

Kill or care, I was content to stay around the village from now on so I didn't risk finding out. No more run-ins with demons for this woman.

A sardonic laugh passed me when a mass emanating a bright blue light whizzed by me, catching my short hair with a light breeze. "Now I wonder what that could be," I wondered lightly, tapping my cheek with the tip of a finger. My luck was abysmal. I promised not to go anywhere near a demon and one just appears right by me as if mocking my decision and telling me that it was all together impossible. Well, I assumed the light was a demon. Until proved otherwise, anything that I wasn't used to after being here for nearly three weeks now was a demon. And I wasn't going to be playing fate's game. If a demon was around, I was going to walk the other way.

Shaking my head and ignoring the eerily familiar warmth that light had given off (dammit, I _wasn't_ going to go after a demon because it gave off the same warmth the well and Rin gave me) I wrapped my kosode firmly around me and bent to pick up my obi.

When I picked up my obi, I froze. It was warm against my hand, filling me with that strange feeling of contentment. On inspection, it was a hair that was on the obi that gave me the warm feeling. A single long silver hair. Long was right. The thing had to be as long as I was tall. And it was giving off heat like a fire. How could a single hair be so warm?

I wound the hair up into a small skein and tucked it into the small pouch I kept with me at all times, usually tucked inside my obi. The note from Mrs Higurashi, a knife I had confiscated from Rin when I had witnessed her trying to scale a fish in the most dangerous fashion I had ever seen, and the hair fit snugly in the pouch, which pressed against my stomach after I tied my obi tight around my stomach.

Biting my lip, I glanced in the direction the blue light had gone in.

What was it with things here making me feel so warm? What connection did those things have to each other? I mean, they had to be connected, right?

"Stick to your guns, Mio," I muttered to myself, shaking out of my daze and heading back in the direction of the village. I rubbed my arms as I walked. Every step I took seemed to make me feel colder. Like I was walking through a snow drift and the cold was only getting worse the more I walked into it. Just like the icy feeling I got when I took my hands off the well. What was doing this?

"You don't need any more trouble," I reminded myself.

* * *

><p>Trouble, however, seemed to be a close friend of mine that seemed content to pop in for tea whenever it felt like it, whether I wanted it (trust me, I didn't) or not.<p>

When I got back to the village, Rin was stood awkwardly at the door of our hut, looking in as if there was someone there. I almost ran towards her to make sure the girl was all right, even as my foot protested painfully.

Sat inside our hut, sipping hot tea out of a cup that I had never seen before, with a tea set I'd also never seen before sitting at her knee, was a woman that I unfortunately had seen before. The memory of her was not a good one.

Immediately my hand moved to grip the tattooed burn on my wrist. "What do you want, _oracle_?" The title was a poisonous insult on my tongue. I could feel myself bristle like an animal as my hand rested protectively on Rin's shoulder. The girl took a half-step back to press against me, looking for the protection I was more than willing to give her. The woman merely sipped her tea. I grit my teeth, gripping more firmly at Rin's shoulder. "_What _do you want?"

"That's no way to greet an old friend, Mio," the woman tut softly, setting down her teacup with a quiet clatter. "I came to see how you were getting on here, of course."

The old woman grinned and I took a step forwards, moving around Rin to stand in front of the girl protectively.

"So young, so young," the woman crooned in that same nonsensical babble I remembered her using all those years ago. "Haven't even met your windows. No! You ignored him. You ignored your windows. Tut, tut, girl. Dont you know he's hurt? So cruel. Go die. Quickly now. We can't have you alive too much longer. You're needed."

That same blasé talk of death as the first time I had met her. It made me cringe.

Rin grasped at my kosode tightly and I shushed the girl gently. "It's all right, Rin," I assured the girl. "Go play in the village for a little while. I'll come and find you in a bit." I needed to chase this crazy old woman away before she upset the girl and further.

Thankfully, Rin let go of my kosode and did as she was told, disappearing out of the hut.

When I was certain the girl was gone and not hovering at the doorway, I turned a burning glare to the old woman. "Leave. I don't want you here." I didn't want to be associated with the oracle at all. I'd tried to erase the memory of her from my mind from the first time I had met her. I didn't want it to happen again. I didn't want to spend months haunted by what she'd said. Not again. I'd barely gotten over it the first time. I didn't know whether I could be so strong again.

The old woman merely laughed. "Oh you're so close." She stood up and brushed off her robes. Her foot passed right through the teacup on the floor as if the cup wasn't even there as she walked towards me. "So close to where you belong. Love. Love the golden windows beneath the crescent moon. It's inevitable now. So much love. So much hatred. So much death. So much _fun._"

She cackled as she walked right into me. Through me. A burning feeling shot through my chest, stealing my breath away.

I span around quickly to watch her fade into nothing in the afternoon sun, clutching at my burning chest with a wince.

Her cackle followed behind her, clawing at my ears as it died to a whisper.

Every hair on my body was standing on end. I felt cold and hot at the same time. I felt sick to my stomach.

Just the same feeling I had when I met her the first time.

I still didn't like it.

* * *

><p>"Rin," I called out as I stumbled through the forest.<p>

As soon as the nausea the old woman had given me had faded, I had darted straight out into the village to look for Rin. She hadn't been in the village so the forest was my next stop. Rin spent a lot of time in the forest.

I needed to know she was okay; that nothing had happened to her. I needed to know the oracle had gotten to her.

"Rin!"

I didn't like the fact that the girl wasn't answering with some noise or another to tell me that she was all right. It just sent a rush of panic through me as I pushed myself to limp a little faster through the forest, calling out her name louder. My voice carried a panicked note I didn't want to deal with. Where was she?

The flash of pink fabric fluttering by a tree had my mind reeling with relief. I rushed towards her, calling out her name again. The girl's head popped out from behind the tree and she looked up at me with wide eyes for a long moment before ushering me over with a desperate flutter of her hand.

"What's wrong, Rin?" I asked as I approached, using the trees to lean my weight against to take the pressure off my smarting foot. I found out what was wrong as soon as I was close enough to see what it was she was standing next to.

Rather, who she was standing next to.

A man.

My hand rubbed at my forearm gently as the hairs began to prickle and rise on my arm. Just like with the bird creature and that demon boy up in the mountains. Was this man a demon, too?

If he was, I supposed being around him wouldn't be as scary as the bird and that wolf boy. I didn't think he could do much damage as he was right now.. His chest was bleeding heavily, soaking into the fine white and red silk of his furisode. I bit my lip as I limped a couple of steps forwards. That wound wasn't small.

I jumped when Rin's hand tugged at my obi to get my attention. "Everything okay, honey?" The girl nodded and pointed at the man then at me. She repeated the actions a few times before I realised what she wanted. "You want me to stay with him for a bit?"

She nodded and dashed away, leaving me standing alone with the passed demon.

I turned my gaze back to him, studying the bleeding chest and mass amounts of fur pillowing his prone body. I had to do something about that wound. I couldn't let someone that was passed out carry on bleeding. Especially not when the wound was on his chest. A dangerous place to have a wound of any kind.

My steps were uneven as I limped on my throbbing foot towards the demon's body. A few feet away from him, I dropped to my knees and crawled, giving my foot a rest. Between running from the mountain pass, the run-in with the oracle and darting around looking for Rin, it was hurting quite a lot.

"I'm just going to look at that wound," I told the unconscious body as I crawled closer.

The warmth the man gave off hit me when I was just a foot from him. That same warmth that Rin and that blue light and the silver hair gave off. Was this demon the blue light I saw earlier? No, he couldn't be. That was silly. The old woman's babbles were getting to me again.

I leaned over the body. His head was facing away from me and his hair fell around his face. Such a beautiful silver colour. I reached out to run my fingers over his hair unconsciously. It was as soft as it looked. Long. It looked almost as long as- No…

I almost scrambled to pull the small skein of silver hair out of the pouch tucked into my obi. My fingers stroked over the skein slowly as my other hand teased through the long locks. They were the same. This man was the source of that blue light from earlier. My chest rose and fell in soft, almost silent giggles. Honestly… I promise not to go near the light and I end up finding it anyway. My luck really was abysmal.

My giggling cut short, though, as my fingers found something hot and wet in his hair while they were stroking it. Blood. How had I forgotten that wound on his chest? I'd come over here to take a look at his chest, not feel up his hair.

Almost in a rush to get a look at his wound now I had wasted time with his hair, I reached out to peel the silk away from his chest. My fingertips didn't even get to brush the fabric before I was thrown backwards with a violent backhand to the face.

I pressed my hand against my throbbing cheek, looking up at the man from my place on the floor. His appearance made me cringe back. He was looking at me, his arm raised. He was just a teenager. An angry looking teenager. Demonic. His skin was pale and smooth, broken with pink and blue markings on his face. Pink streaks and a blue crescent moon.

His sclera were red. Not just the sort of pink-red they became when someone had drunk too much; they were a bright, solid red. A snarl marred the young man's face. By reflex, my eyes dropped to the floor. Dont look your attacker in the eye. It was guaranteed to anger them. I'd learnt that the hard way.

The growling died down slowly and, after a moment, I felt brave enough to attempt to sit up without the fear of being struck down again. I didn't move for a long time after I pushed myself up into a sitting position. The two of us stared at each other. The red bled from his sclera slowly, replaced with the usual white you'd expect from eyes. When the red bled away, the colour of his irises became all too clear.

A hot, molten gold.

_Look for the golden windows beneath the crescent moon._

_ ...Golden windows beneath the crescent moon..._

_ ...Golden windows..._

Golden eyes.

Did the woman mean eyes when she said windows? Golden eyes.

My breath hitched. His eyes were the most intense golden colour I had ever seen. I could feel myself shaking just a little as the memories bombarded me. I swear I could hear the bustling crowd of the summer festival; smell the burning flesh and thick incense.

I was bought back to the presence when I felt hot droplets splattering on my hands. It was a long, disconnected minute before I realised that those droplets were tears. _My _tears.

Thoroughly embarrassed, I raised my hands to wipe at my eyes and cheeks to remove any evidence of my crying. I hadn't cried over the memory of that day in a long, long time. And even beyond that, to cry in front of someone else... That hadn't happened since I was young. I couldn't have been any older than fourteen the last time I cried in front of someone.

I turned my back to the injured man, wrapping my arms around myself as I tried to calm my shaking breathing into something a little more steady.

The silence that stretched between us was thick. It was almost thick enough to choke me alongside the lump that had lodged itself into my throat courtesy of the sudden and unwanted tears.

"Why are you crying?" His voice was deeper than I expected it and not quite as rough. It was a smooth baritone. A caress to the ears.

"I-It's nothing," I mumbled softly, wiping my running nose with the sleeve of my kosode. It was due for a good scrub anyway. I didn't get the luxury of washing everything on an almost daily basis like I had back home. I had to make-do until my kosode was pretty much standing up on its own; especially with no clean water in the immediate area. It took a while of walking to get to clean enough water to be able to scrub down my clothes properly.

My stuttered mumble ended the conversation before it really had the time to blossom and we were left in silence again.

I chewed on my lip as my mind turned back to the man's wounds. All that blood wasn't healthy. That wound still needed looking at. I couldn't do a lot, but there was definitely something that I could do. All my first aid training for school trips would finally be of some use. "Your shoulder really needs looking at," I uttered in a soft voice, turning my brown eyes over my shoulder to him.

"My business is not yours to meddle with."

My shoulders squared a little as I half-turned so my torso was facing him, frightened mouse forgotten as the teacher in me took hold. "As true as that might be," I began bravely, "that wound isn't trivial. I can do something for it. Clean it and wrap it at the very least. If you leave it like that, you could very well get an infection." I'd been given the 'clean your cuts or they'll get infected' lecture a thousand times or more from Saburo in the years we had been dating. It was second nature now to insist all cuts people got were to be cleaned and dressed, whether the cuts were simple paper cuts or something a little more serious; like, say, a hole in the shoulder.

"My body isn't as weak as yours." His golden gaze fell on my face, giving my cheek a pointed look, where I knew my skin was red and swollen and already forming a bruise from the nice backhand he had given me.

"That doesn't mean you should be careless." I didn't know where this brave face was coming from. Maybe the few weeks I'd had free of Saburo's domineering ways was giving me a little more confidence. Without a man at my back beating me down, I could speak my mind without fear of said beating.

The demon merely grunted, turning his face away from me.

If I needed any proof that this demon was the teenager that he looked like, this was all I needed. That move was something I had seen many, many times in the years I had been working with teenagers. He was sulking because I'd used logic against him.

Hopefully that meant he'd allow me to dress his wound for him.

I was slow and hesitant, a little too much like a frightened mouse in my opinion, as I turned and reached for his haori again. A growl began again, but it was nowhere near as vicious as it had been and he didn't strike me as I carefully peeled the silk of his haori and cotton of his underclothing away from the wound on his shoulder.

It was grotesque. The skin was split right open and weeping congealing blood. I almost gagged. I hadn't seen anything like it before.

How wasn't he out cold right now with a wound like that?

I licked my dry lips and fumbled with my kosode, pushing it out of the way so I could tear at my hadajuban, ripping it into strips that I could use for bandaging. By the time I had enough, my hadajuban was hardly worth wearing. Not enough of it survived for it to cover my backside any more.

I balled one strip up and carefully began blotting at the bloody skin around the wound. When that was as clean as I could make it without any water to swill the wound out, I folded a strip carefully and placed it gently over the split skin before ushering him to lean forwards a little. He didn't move for a long moment, but eventually leaned forwards enough for me to be able to slip his haori off his shoulder so I could wrap the wound properly. His arm and shoulder were muscular. The most muscular I had ever seen on a person that wasn't in a magazine or on TV. In any other situation, I would have taken a long moment to ogle the muscle. But, this wasn't a situation where I had the time to ogle him.

He didn't wince once as I wrapped the wound and let him lay back against the ground. Strong boy.

"I don't have any medical supplies," I muttered softly as I adjusted his haori carefully over his shoulder again. "The bandage should, at the very least, keep any dirt from getting in it. You'll want to find a proper doctor when you can move. Our village isn't far out. It's not much, but we do have a sort of medic there."

He gave a quiet grunt as his golden eyes, that had been gazing at me with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity while I had been cleaning his wound, finally slid shut.

I bit my lip as I looked over his face again. He looked just as relaxed as he had when I first laid eyes on him. Like the wound on his shoulder didn't even itch. It was impressive to see someone just brush off a wound like that.

"Thank you." I looked down at my hands, clasped together on my lap. "For letting me clean your shoulder." Him ignoring me like that made me feel like I was just a burden to him. I felt the need to apologise for cleaning his wound. How pathetic of me. Maybe I wasn't quite as brave as I thought I was without Saburo around to instill fear into me. Maybe I was just this pathetic, with or without Saburo around.

I just got another grunt from him.

At least it wasn't an angry growl and a backhand to the face.

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><p>I yawned as my body jerked, alerting me to the fact that I had been nodding off in my kneeling position next to the silent demon man. It had been dark for a while and Rin hadn't showed up yet. I had thought that she was going to be back soon after she left, but it had been hours and she still wasn't showing.<p>

I hoped that she had had the good sense to stay in the hut tonight and come by in the morning.

Another yawn ripped from me as I turned my tired brown eyes to the demon still lying on the ground beside me, his head still pillowed on the mass of white fur curled around him. It almost looked like one giant tail.

He was still turned away from me like a sulking child. I gave a little smile. Teenagers were all the same. You could tell a teenager by the way they acted no matter where you were. It was a bit of normality in my otherwise strange life over the past few weeks. A sulking teenager was something I could deal with in my sleep. Demons and no technology had me a little out of my element.

I ran my fingers through my hair, wincing as they snagged in tangles. I hadn't brushed through my hair after my bath and surprise run. It had knotted into a mass that resembled a bird's nest. I muttered softly to myself as my fingers tugged through my curly bob, trying to unknot it a little bit.

Beside me, the teenage gave a quiet grunt, as if non-verbally mocking me for worrying about my hair.

"Rin'll probably be back in the morning tomorrow," I murmured.

I was (_surprisingly_) met with silence. Actually giving me a verbal response did give me a surprise, though. "Go to her. I don't need a woman watching over me."

My fingers paused in their poor attempts at taming the back of my hair. I did want to go back to Rin and make sure she was okay. I'd become fiercely protective over her since we'd met. She'd very nearly become my child in the weeks we'd been together. I didn't like the idea of her being home alone. But I could just imagine the heartbroken look she would give me if she knew I had left this boy alone when she'd asked me to stay with him.

I bit my lip, worrying it between my teeth a little. I didn't know what to say. I felt awkward in the man's presence. My eyes just wouldn't meet his. That gold was already burnt into my mind. The chills I got when I did meet his eyes left me breathless. It made me uncomfortable.

The teen gave another grunt; this one verging on a soft growl. He clearly wasn't happy with the fact that I wasn't leaving him alone.

He'd just have to deal with it. I didn't want to upset Rin.

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><p><strong>So that was chapter three. I hope you all enjoyed it.<strong>

**Review answering time! Thanks for everyone that took the time to read this chapter.**

Sestuna1986: **Nope, not a mating mark. This chapter takes place just after Inuyasha learns the Wind Scar, so Kagome's been in the Feudal era for a month or two already.**

Guest: **Yupp, Rin and Mio do meet Sesshomaru this chapter.**

**I'd also like to thank** Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967 **for reviewing.**

**See you all in a fortnight**


	5. Scroll Four

**Another chapter! We're finally getting somewhere important with the story in this chapter. Everyone excited? Good!**

**I have to apologise for being a little late with this chapter.**

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><p><strong>Golden Windows<strong>

Scroll Four  
>Attack<p>

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><p>Rin returned in the morning light, carrying a container of water and a leaf laden with food. Having only woken up a few minutes earlier, I greeted her with just a tired smile as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.<p>

She gave me a returning bright smile as she set down the container of water and held out the food laden leaf to the Demon boy.

What happened next sent all sleepy thoughts from my head and before I could even form another thought, my body was moving.

A second slap rang out through the air.

My glare faltered as the sting set in and those narrowed golden eyes turned up to me. I'd… I'd struck him. My body had moved on autopilot when he had struck Rin and before I had even formed a thought in my head, I had reacted defensively. "D-Don't," I stuttered, stumbling back half a step, shaking my head slowly. My voice was quiet and shaky. There was a cold chill running down my spine. "Don't you ever lay a hand on her."

Rin tugged at my kosode, drawing my wide-eyed stare from the Demon, silently staring up at me through narrowed eyes. She hugged me tightly before pointing at the Demon firmly and running off again, silently telling me I was to stay with him again.

I watched her leave, refusing to look at the teen. And when she was out of sight, I continued to stare at nothing, just to avoid looking at the Demon.

It wasn't for a few long minutes that anything happened. "You are terrified." I tensed as he spoke, but gave a shaky little nod. I couldn't hide it. That glare had sent chills through me. No teenagers glare had ever sent those sorts of chills through me before. It reminded me too much of that wild child that had threatened to eat me.

"You're terrified and yet you still protected her." His voice wasn't a dark angry voice. It sounded more… thoughtful than angry.

I rubbed at my arms as gooseflesh prickled at them. "I'll always protect her," I declared, trying to find my strength. I found it, eventually, as I turned my grey eyes up to him. "I'll protect her from anyone that dares hurt her. Even… even if they're a Demon." I inhaled deeply. "She doesn't deserve people's anger. She doesn't deserve to be hit." Rin did not deserve any type of rough treatment.

"To go as far as to protect her from someone you know can kill you…" His voice was that quiet thoughtful hum again.

I was beyond thankful that he hadn't taken offence at what I had said and decided to get violent towards me. I doubted I would be able to save myself from the wrath of a Demon.

We fell into a silence, then. A silence that stretched the entire day. That didn't really bother me. The silence was comfortable enough that I wasn't tense as a stone throughout the entire time. We shared a few words when it came to mid-afternoon. A very short conversation.

"Are you going to eat those?" I had asked, referring to the fish and mushrooms Rin had bought him.

"Human food does nothing for me," had been his response.

I had picked up the food that was scattered across the ground and began nibbling at it, lapsing back into silence again.

Once again it was Rin that started conversation again.

The sun was setting again and I was chewing on my lip roughly as I thought about her. "I hope she's okay back at the hut." I got worried about the girl. No one at the village seemed to care that an eight year old was running around alone before I showed up, but the thought of someone so young fending for themselves made me nervous. I wanted to limp my way to the village as fast as I could, but I didn't want to leave the Demon teen all by himself.

"Go to her." There was an edge to his voice. A forceful note that rang like an order.

He didn't want me here. We'd had a similar exchange last night around the same time.

But once again, I stayed put for Rin's sake. I wasn't going to disobey Rin's request to stay with him if the girl was really that worried about him.

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><p>Rin's appearance as the sun rose the next more bought with it a near heart attack of worry from me. I'd shot up quicker than a whip at the sight of her bruised body limping towards us from between the trees.<p>

"Rin, what happened to you, sweetheart?" Unsurprisingly, I was met with silence from the girl. I still struggled with open questions around her. I wasn't adjusting so seamlessly to one of my only sources of companionship being a mute, even with all the time I had spent with her.

The girl gave me a pained little smile before hobbling towards the Demon boy. She held out a leaf plate to him. He didn't lash out at her like he had done yesterday. He spared me a flicker of his eyes before he looked away from the two of us, turning his nose up at the offered food. "No thank you," he mumbled. The politeness made me give a little smile. That was a lot better than yesterday.

I took a few steps closer to them and had just reached Rin when the boy spoke again. "Wht happened to your face?" His voice was lined with curiosity.

Rin's head had snapped up, looking up at him with shock. I was guilty of a shocked expression, as well. The question almost sounded like it was worried. If I hadn't witnessed him slapping her just the day before, I would have actually thought it was worry for her.

"…All right then, don't tell me," he scoffed, turning his gaze away from us when neither of us gave an answer.

Rin's face lit up in a bright grin before she darted off yet again, leaving the two of us alone.

"Thank you," I murmured softly. "For treating her so well." I hesitated for a moment, waiting for a response that didn't come. I shouldn't have expected an answer from him, really. "I'm going to go after her and see if she really is okay." With a little bob of my head, I turned bad began limping after the girl back towards the village. "I'll be back soon."

Rin hadn't ordered me to stay here this time and with her bruised up so much, I really didn't think I would follow her orders even if she had given them. I needed to make sure she was all right.

My trip towards the village was slow and I didn't even make it within sight-range of the village before I saw Rin running along the dirt path towards me, her eyes wet and her face screwed up in panic. "Rin?" She grabbed my sleeve as she ran past me.

I found out what she was running from just a second later.

Wolves.

I didn't need any more coaxing after catching sight of their brown fur. I turned tail and ran as fast as I could, ignoring the sharp sting in my foot as best as I could. The wolves were inevitably faster than I was and in my panic, I stumbled, tripping up and falling atop Rin, knocking the both of us over.

The wolves were on us in seconds, tearing into my skin with their sharp teeth. I wrapped my body around Rin's tiny frame instinctively, trying to protect her from the wolves' ravenous hunger. They were relentless, tearing into my flesh brutally. I screamed and cried in pain, but continued my attempts to cover the girl under me.

Rin cried under me, sobbing and whimpering as she listened to my screams. I wish I could do something to stop the girl's pain. I didn't want her to have to listen to me being mauled by animals. If she survived, I didn't ever want her to remember the way I had screamed.

Teeth clamped around my throat and after a gurgling breath, I fell silent. My body continued to jerk and writhe atop the girl as my vision began to blur. I could feel the hot pour of blood spurting from the wound t my throat, pouring down my body as teeth continued to tear at me.

"_Mio!_" a voice I'd never heard before screamed loudly as I felt my vision go dark.

I didn't feel like I was falling into unconsciousness. I had fallen unconscious many times in my life and this didn't feel like any of those times. This felt...lighter. Like I was drifting. I had only felt it once before, but that one time was something that I would never forget. This strange almost peaceful floating feeling, as my mind detached from my body and the pain began to lessen was not unfamiliar to me.

I was dying.

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><p><strong>This chapter is a little shorter than usual. I was in a little bit of a rush to get it out. I've been so busy recently that I've missed my deadline and I felt really bad for it, so I've sat for like three hours typing as fast as I can to get at least a short chapter out to you.<strong>

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

**Thank you** Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967, Keedda **and** KittenLove **for your reviews for the last chapter!**

**See you all in a fortnight!**


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